WHY Do You Suffer?

Austin-Sparks

5/12/2008

WHY do you suffer? WHY are we “stretched” so? Well, : )

Matthew 14:22-36—the Lord Jesus constrained, or compelled His disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away. He went up into a mountain to pray and when evening had come He was there alone. The ship was now many furlongs from the land and distressed, for the wind was contrary. In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them walking upon the waters; and out of that incident we linked Hebrews 7:25. We saw that the Lord was training His disciples in the light of a coming day when He Himself would be in the Mount making intercession for them and the church would be down here in the storm. He would be there, and they would be here, and in view of that coming day they would have to learn the lesson of faith by which to get through to the other side. In the midst of the conflict, the opposition, the raging of the enemy, the only thing that would get them through would be a mighty faith in Him as up there interceding for them.

That is where we come to in the secret place, and we see that the issue for the church in this dispensation in the matter of getting right through all the storm and the raging of the adversary against the church to swamp it, is the issue of a mighty faith in the Lord Jesus. We notice how deliberate He was in that. And straightway He compelled them, and they went out under His compulsion, and when they found themselves in the conflict, in the trouble, it was because it was all according to plan. The Lord has Himself precipitated the church into the conflict of this age, He Himself holding on up there in prayer in order to bring out of the church that triumphant faith over all the work of the enemy by which it shall get through to the other side. In the illustration in Matthew it broke down because He had to say, “O ye of little faith”, but the question in view is the matter of faith which goes through and gets to the other side, a faith in the Son of God, and that is where we are now. Do we believe that all this conflict is an accident, or because things have gone wrong? Well, if you study it close enough, the closer you get the more you feel there is a plan about it, divine purpose in it; it all has a meaning. The Lord does not deliver you out of conflict however much you cry to be delivered, but He teaches you how to go through in the power of a growing faith, and the church in the end is going to triumph by this faith in the Son of God. It is unto the coming of the Lord. What the Lord is doing is to develop in the church in the midst of conflict, a faith that will overcome and break through and reach the Lord. It is ascendancy, it is a coming up principle, it is a faith rising over the storm and believing in Him when He is out of sight. He is not unmoved. He knows all about it and He ever lives to make intercession. He is praying there, and we ought to make more of the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus than we do and believe that this will prevail for us. It is a great thing to think that the Son of God is praying for you and for me. It is a blessed thing to think of people praying for us, but He is praying for us! That is the basis of faith. He is praying in faith and we can take advantage of that BY faith. Now you see, relative to the coming of the Lord this is ascendancy of faith and it has got to be maintained in the storm, has to become a feature of the Lord’s people.